Pamphlet

Files

Body

Header

Content

Noisebridge is a space for creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring, sharing, and of course, learning. Noisebridge is also more than a physical space, it’s a community with worldwide roots.

What’s The Big Idea?

We provide infrastructure and collaboration opportunities for people interested in programming, hardware hacking, physics, chemistry, mathematics, photography, security, robotics, all kinds of art, and, of course, technology. Through talks, workshops, and projects we encourage knowledge exchange, learning, and mentoring.

As a space for artistic collaboration and experimentation, we are open to all types of art with a special emphasis on the crossover of art and technology. From hardware labs to electronics, cooking, photography, and sound labs, anything that’s creative is welcome.

Interesting things are always happening at Noisebridge. Sharing is essential to making this work. Starting from a base of respect and trust, we have built a safe community to foster innovation and creation. Our code of conduct is “Be excellent to each other”.

Leadership is taken by individual members for specific projects. We call this “sudo leadership” after the *nix command sudo which allows a regular user to do one root-level, or superuser, task. In other words, if you want Noisebridge to do something, start doing it.

Who Is Financing It?

We self-finance through membership fees ($80 per member/month with $40 “starving hacker” rate), beverage sales, and fundraising parties, the way European hacker spaces do it. We also accept donations. Donations and sponsorships enable renovation and equipment purchase. Within the first 24 hours of renting a space, we raised over $10,000 for a cool location and meaningful projects. Within our first month, we’ve nearly become cash flow positive from membership dues alone. Further discussion is happening on the Finances wiki page.

Where Does The Inspiration Come From?

Noisebridge is inspired by similar European clubs like Metalab of Vienna, CBase of Berlin, MAMA of Zagreb, and ASCII of Amsterdam. Many other clubs of a similar stripe can be found at Hacklabs and hackerspaces.org. Some members consider Noisebridge a San Francisco Chaostreff. Noisebridge as a hacker space and community shares a Dorkbot-like ethic, and indeed, many of the members of Noisebridge are long-time Dorkbotters.